Your commute is bad? Try 186 miles each way

SAN JOSE, Calif. — If you're howling about paying a lot more to fill up these days, thank your lucky nozzle you're not David Givens of California.

Every weekday, Givens drives 372 miles commuting from Mariposa to his job at Cisco Systems in San Jose.

Last week, as prices skyrocketed and Exxon Mobil reported a historic first-quarter profit of $8.4 billion, Givens talked with resignation of doling out $40 a day, $200 a week, $800 a month in gas money.

For his daily round-trip journey, Givens won the "America's Longest Commute" contest conducted by Midas Muffler, which received nearly 3,000 entries from New York to the Golden State as part of a 50th-anniversary celebration.

Considering the average one-way commute nationally is 25.5 minutes, you can call Givens a runaway winner.

"I was surprised to win," said Givens, who won $10,000 along with maintenance services and products. Nominated by a co-worker, he said, "I thought for sure someone else would have a longer commute."

That would be hard for most to fathom. For the past two years, with kids grown and a desire to get home to his wife and their 7 ½-acre ranch, the 46-year-old electrical engineer has commuted every workday, from the Sierra through the Central Valley to the Bay Area alternating over Pacheco Pass or the Altamont Pass, depending on traffic.

That's 3 ½ hours one way: a decent trade-off, insists Givens, for living the outdoor lifestyle he and his wife relish in the pristine mountains of Mariposa County.

"It's actually exhilarating," Givens said of his journey, likening it to TV commercials "driving a fancy car down Highway 1 with the top down. I enjoy taking the curves. It feels like I'm a professional driver going down a closed course."

Because this road warrior finds that gas along the major highways tends to be more expensive, he gets his at Pacific Pride Commercial fueling stations off the beaten path back home. And mileage counts: He gets 30 mpg in his 2005 Accord.

Givens began the mega-commute in 1989, spending a couple of nights a week overnight in the South Bay. But that was when he was a project manager and working 15 hours a day. Now he's an eight-hour-a-day guy, and instead of spending the extra time at the office, he's inside the confines of his Accord tracking traffic reports, listening to talk radio or cowboy novels on tape.

Handlebar mustache trimmed and boots on, Givens is out the door heading down Highway 140 about 4:30 each morning. He stops at Starbucks in Chowchilla "to do the coffee thing." Then he heads across Highway 152 to 101 to Great America Parkway and Tasman Drive, changing radio stations constantly, listening for every traffic report possible.

By 7:45 a.m., he's in his Ciscoland cubicle — fresh, believe it or not.

"When I get in, I'm pumped up, ready to go," Givens said. "Everybody else is dragging in looking for the coffeepot. I just drove 200 miles, dodging rain, fog, deer, elk and everything else. No problem."

At 5 p.m. he's out the door, back in the car and heading home with slightly more than a half a tank of gas to reach Mariposa. Typically, he arrives home about 8:30 p.m., often well past sunset.

This is certainly not for everyone, even the most dedicated long-distance commuters.

But Garry Reese, another long-distance commuter — 75 miles each way from Patterson to San Jose, a one-hour, 40-minute trip — can understand.

"A 186-mile commute each way wouldn't be welcomed," said Reese, a 53-year-old construction management consultant who used to sleep under his desk, getting up early to wash and shampoo in the restroom sink, appearing to just be in early to arriving co-workers. "But I wouldn't automatically refuse to do it."

The one major plus, he said: "The ability to own a house, which I couldn't do living in the Bay Area."

And about that lifestyle Givens relishes:

He and his wife, Connie, raise horses, and she trains search dogs. He's on a local search-and-rescue team. By the time he gets home, he and his wife have a few hours each night for each other — good, quality hours, he maintains.

"I could not have the lifestyle I want in the Bay Area or even Gilroy," Givens said. "To own 7 ½ acres over here would break the bank. But there I have enough land."

How long can he continue a commute that many would describe as unthinkable? The $10,000 check will cover gas for another year.

"I've got another five or 10 years in me," Givens said. "I don't see any end in sight.

"Unless gas prices get too high."